Egypt to establish 9 international public schools

CAIRO – 30 September 2018: Ministry of Education will establish nine low-fees international public schools by the end of October to grant middle class students international certificates, including the International Baccalaureate (IB), the American diploma and IG.

The ministry added that these schools will serve middle school students and that their fees will be lower than fees of private international schools.

The ministry further remarked that the number of kindergarten students applying for the International Baccalaureate (IB) at the 5th settlement is 730, and meetings have been held with their parents on Saturday to choose 150 kindergarten students from them.

The admission result will be declared on October 8 for studying to start by the end of October, the Ministry of Education added, pointing out that it coordinates with the International Baccalaureate (IB) at Sheikh Zayed to provide its expertise to the teaching staff at the 5th Settlement school.

In this regard, the other public international schools are found in Qalyubia, Dakahlia, new Sohag City, Minya, Alexandria and Sharqia.

A source at the Ministry of Education highlighted that the international public schools will follow the same curricula of the private international schools, referring that the schools will be run by the International Schools Association and Green Land International School Community.

The Ministry of Education has taken several steps to enhance education in Egypt, which is part of Egypt’s 2030 vision to cultivate economic and social justice and revive the role of Egypt in regional leadership.

First Arabic Citation Index worldwide

Minister of Education and Technical Education Tarek Shawki, a representative of the Knowledge Bank, signed on May 28 a protocol with Clarivate Analytics to launch the first Arabic citation index worldwide.

The signing ceremony was attended by Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem, head of Bibliotheca Alexandrina Mostafa el-Feki, public figures, members of Parliament and leaders at the Ministry of Education.

“The ARCI will be powered by the Web of Science – the world’s most trusted and only publisher – neutral citation index for researchers in Egypt and across the 22 member states of the Arab League,” according to Clarivate Analytics’ website.

Shawki remarked that the index offers a real opportunity to invest in the field of scientific research, an easy access to Arabic scholarly content and the first ever mapping of Arabic scholarly literature.

He further remarked that the Ministry of Education is building a new system of education based on research, and hence it launched the Knowledge Bank, Egypt’s leading digital library and online knowledge hub, which is part of Egypt’s 2030 Vision to transform Egypt into a “knowledge economy”.

“Egypt’s 2030 Vision can be achieved only through changing the education system,” Shawki added, adding that the index will help Egypt export knowledge and thus enter the field of knowledge economy.

He further revealed that certified entities are not found to evaluate researches published in Arabic, but journals will be available in Arabic on the index for citation and evaluating the quality and research output of Arabic researchers.

“We need to establish an Arabic council to index journals and researches, and Egypt is leading a major process by indexing and exporting research abroad; there is considerable support from the political leadership in this matter," Shawki said.

The new system of education

In the same context, he mentioned that the index is included in the new system of education at the secondary school, stressing that the Ministry of Education agreed with many international entities to buy their contents and provide Egyptian students with them, in addition to buying 2D and 3D films, as well as 5,700 videos in English and Arabic. He said that these movies, Al-Adwaa book and other scientific content will be put on tablets.

He stated that a random exam will be prepared every week to encourage students to come to schools.

“The new system is better than the existing one, and 2,500 schools are being prepared with internet access of around 100 megabytes at each school,” Shawki said.

In early June, the ministry will declare its plan to train teachers in a partnership with several companies, including Discovery Company and the Education First program.

Shawki announced that Thanaweya Amma students of one school will take their unified exam that is different from another school’s unified exam. Currently, Thanaweya Amma students nationwide take the same unified exam in each subject.

Shawki said that Egypt will sign a deal with the World Bank for $500 million to fund the government’s plan in the presence of Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr in Washington.

Japanese schools

The minister of education said in a press statement that the Egyptian-Japanese schools’ curriculum will be in Arabic in the primary school.

The Japanese education system, Tokkatsu, will be applied at 40 Egyptian-Japanese schools in different governorates in September.

A total of 20,000 teachers applied to the ministry for training in the Japanese Tokkatsu education system.

Shawki added that the ministry held a meeting on June 4 to choose 1,500 students for Japanese schools.

Tokkastu is an educational system known in Japan that develops all the skills of the student, focusing on creativity and thinking rather than memorization and indoctrination.

The activities of the system allow students to practice teamwork and collaborate with colleagues to reach goals. Tokkatsu is applied to students within a class of no more than 40 students.

Activities are also aimed at building personality, teamwork skills, belonging, hygiene values, self-esteem, responsibility and thinking.

The Tokkastu system promotes students' self-confidence through several activities and skills. Pupils also design activities and set goals for themselves.

Secondary schools’ exams

To fight cheating and repeated Thanaweya Amma exam leaks, modern techniques will be used this year to monitor and control cheating pages on social media and take strict legal measures with anyone participating in leaking the exams, as part of the Interior Ministry’s plan.

Leaking of the exams has been a commonly widespread phenomenon in Egypt in recent years.

Social media and smartphones made it easier for exams to be leaked. Therefore, the government introduced a new high school examination paper, called the “Booklet”, designed to put an end to online cheating and exam leaks.

Technical education

The future of technical education in Egypt received a significant boost in the recent period as Egypt continues to work towards achieving economic diversification, vocational education and training that are especially needed to bridge the skills gap in the market.

Previously, Minister of Education and Technical Education Shawki signed on June 10 cooperation protocols with several private companies to implement the “Egypt Makers” initiative, under the slogan “Learn.. Improve.. Work” to boost technical education in Egypt.

In this regard, Shawki said that the cooperation protocols aim to advance technical education, raise the students’ production skills, prepare them for jobs and tackle unemployment, where partners in the protocols will provide students with job opportunities after graduating from schools.

He added that the ministry, in cooperation with the private sector, seeks to assure the quality of technical education to build a strong industrial sector that is able to achieve Egypt's 2030 vision in line with international quality standards and market needs.

He referred that 55 percent of students enroll in technical education, and that the technical education's problem is caused by the lack of quality, stressing that if the quality is enhanced, Egypt will not depend on expatriate workers.

He further explained that a new plan to improve technical education in Egypt will be set within six weeks.